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Full Idea
Causation is the ancestral of causal dependence: event c causes event e iff either e depends on c, or e depends on an intermediate event which in turn depends on c, or....
Gist of Idea
Causation is a general relation derived from instances of causal dependence
Source
David Lewis (Events [1986], I)
Book Ref
Lewis,David: 'Philosophical Papers Vol.2' [OUP 1986], p.242
A Reaction
This is Lewis making sure that we don't postulate some huge bogus thing called 'Causation' which is supposed to be in charge of Nature. Good point.
Related Idea
Idea 10032 'Ancestral' relations are derived by iterating back from a given relation [Frege, by George/Velleman]